Every once in a while I chance upon something that almost smashes me in the face with the understanding that the past really is a foreign country. These pages are an excerpt about training that come from a very, very long document written by Rice’s first coach and Athletic Director, Philip Arbuckle, about how to coach track and field athletes. There is pretty wild theorizing going on in here. Some of it makes sense but some of it sounds like the stuff my three year old granddaughter says.

But that thing on the second page about “staleness’? I think I’ve got that, especially the irritability and bad temper part! Note that the remedy is absolute rest and a change of diet. I’m thinking more doughnuts might help.

Here’s a nice picture of Arbuckle, who was a wonderful man and a good coach too. I’ll have another post about him tomorrow.

Bonus: From the windows of the new office building/parking garage. The views are spectacular.

8 Responses to “Too much milk tends to slow a man up,” 1920

I had to laugh when I read this. I had a coach once that preached about the evil of “dissipation” during training. He was talking about sex. I wonder if this coach was meaning the same connotation? Wright

Thanks Coach Arbuckle for your words of wisdom. As an old athlete, I should have known these pearls of “Training” already, but I suppose it is never too late to learn and adopt the ones I have been slacking on. Henceforth, I will try to refrain from dissipation, eat a healthy diet composed of about 80% stuff, eat potatoes at every meal, and sleep on my right side with the window open. That should help me prepare for the next Senior Olympics.